RUSSIAN DRONES HAVE struck the Black Sea city of Mykolaiv, setting a hotel on fire and damaging energy infrastructure, the local Ukrainian governor has said.

Vitaliy Kim said Russian drones “seriously damaged” the hotel and affected heat-generating infrastructure in the city. He added that there were no casualties.

Russian state agency RIA carried claims that the strike on Mykolaiv targeted a shipyard where naval drones are assembled, as well as a hotel housing “English-speaking mercenaries” who have fought for Kyiv.

The RIA report cited Sergei Lebedev, described as a co-ordinator of local pro-Moscow guerrillas. His claim could not be independently verified.

Separately this morning, the Russian defence ministry said 17 Ukrainian drones were downed overnight over four regions in the country’s south-west. Three drones were intercepted near an oil depot in Lyudinovo. There were no immediate reports of any casualties or damage.

Russian shelling on Saturday and overnight wounded at least seven civilians across Ukraine, according to Ukrainian officials.

The Donetsk and Kharkiv regions have seen fierce clashes in recent weeks as Russian forces seek to grind out gains along the 1000km front line, while ammunition shortages have increasingly hamstrung Ukraine’s defences.

Russian troops “will likely make significant gains in the coming weeks” while Kyiv awaits much-needed arms from a huge US aid package to reach the front, a Washington-based think tank said.

Avdiivka

Russia’s defence ministry has claimed its forces had taken control of a village around 10 kilometres north of Avdiivka, the eastern city they took in late February after a gruelling, months-long fight, and threaten nearby Chasiv Yar.

“As the result of active operations, the ‘Centre’ troop unit liberated the village of Novobakhmutivka in the Donetsk People’s Republic,” the defence ministry said in its daily battlefield briefing.

In its latest operational assessment, the Institute for the Study of War said Moscow’s forces have opportunities to push forward around Avdiivka in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk.

Its capture would give Russia control of a hilltop from which it can attack other key cities forming the backbone of Ukraine’s eastern defences.

Despite this, the institute assessed that neither of these efforts by Moscow are likely to cause Kyiv’s defensive lines to collapse.